On the first page of the booklet note for this release,
above all the technical credits, reads a small but important statement:
“In memory of Frans Brüggen.”

Brüggen was the co-founder of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century,
and he made them a force to reckoned with in the world of historically
informed performance. His death in 2014 must have touched them very
personally and, while the booklet notes aren't specific, I wonder
whether the concert, at which this disc was recorded, was also a special
tribute to Brüggen? It is not difficult to read in this performance
a particularly special tribute to the ensemble’s co-founder and
guardian spirit, and the live nature of the occasion definitely helps,
too.

That might account for the thoughtfulness and deep spiritual intensity
that radiates from the performance. In fact, it is characterised by
quiet majesty throughout. The opening Kyrie feels big and muscular,
but never overblown, and it's telling that the voices of the
soloists tend to grow out of the choral/orchestral texture rather than
standing out in a declamatory way. Appropriately, Reuss directs the
work as though he is searching for truth rather than giving out a proclamation
from on high. “From the heart…”

The opening of the Gloria is as exhilarating as you could hope
for. If anything, it's the chorus rather than the orchestra that
really make the scalp prickle here, giving their all, while the brass
and timps do their high octane stuff underneath. There is pain and unsettled
intensity during the Qui tollis section before euphoria returns
in the Quoniam, and the great fugue on In gloria Dei Patris
has a marvellous swagger to it that is enormously winning. The intensity
at the end is beyond doubt.

There is a straightforwardness to the opening of the Credo, and there
is great weight at consubstantialem Patri. However, the change
of mood at Et incarnatus est then conjures up one of the most
profound, meditative sections of the whole recording, not just from
the committed singers, but also from the flute solo, “almost absent-minded”
as the booklet notes describes it. The cumulative effect of the fugue
on Et vitam venturi is powerful and rousing, summoning great
things from all the performers, and the final Amen hammers things home
with unarguable authority.

The atmosphere of the opening of the Sanctus is reflective
but pregnant with expectation which is rousingly fulfilled at Pleni
sunt caeli sung only by the soloists. The Benedictus itself
has a solo violin that is perhaps a little too thin for my taste but
this is made up for by singing of inward commitment from the soloists.

The soloists are, indeed, very strong throughout. Carolyn Sampson and
Marianne Beate Kielland sing with commitment and radiant beauty. Thomas
Walker sounds inward and reflective, seldom rousing, but that's
an aspect of Reuss’s vision. David Wilson-Johnson comes into his
own for the angst-ridden, existential solo that opens the Angus
Dei, sounding like a cross between Amfortas and Boris Godunov.
Indeed, for the rest of the Agnus Dei the thing that stands
out most is the orchestra’s delicate, whispery tone-painting,
both alongside and beneath the words. Detail after detail kept being
brought to my attention in ways I had never observed before, making
the experience feel like a new process of discovery. The brass are particularly
good at Dona nobis pacem, pointing up their lines with subtle
skill.

In short, this is a Missa Solemnis that, for me, really taps
into the spirituality of Beethoven’s vision. There is depth and
insight in every movement, and the overall result is as moving as it
is musically impressive. The live-ness, perhaps, sets it apart from
other studio recordings, such as Gardiner’s first, and brings
it closer to Herreweghe’s. In fact, even though it sounds very
different, the recording it reminds me of the most is Levine’s
on Deutsche Grammophon, which saw the Salzburg Festival bid farewell
to Herbert von Karajan. Both that one and this bring a special commitment
which lift this above the realm of ordinary music-making. In both cases
the dedicatee would, I am sure, have been pleased with the result.